[Theme] Show us your best moon (and solar system) images

[Øivind Tøien]

Thanks Bruno, sorry it did not work out for you.

[Øivind Tøien]

My new toy arrived, now providing 0.6° angle of view, similar to a 4000mm lens on a full frame sensor. To say that framing is challenging is an understatement... I need to construct a mount for my red-dot sight on this rig.

The ZWO ASI678MC attached to 300mm f.4 PF+TC-14E+TC-20E III. The sensor is a Sony IMX678c that has 4K resolution at 7.7x 4.3mm size.
#1



A computer is needed to record video and images, so not very mobile. Very high frame rates can be obtained if only a small pixel area is recorded. At full resolution it records about 46 frames/sec.
#2



Lunar surface tonight, vertical crop from a horizontal frame, stack of the 50% best of about 1200 frames, each video .ser raw file takes up about 2GB!
(Open in new taband click for full 100% size).  It is impressive what resolution this lens can provide even with such a small sensor.
#3



A stich of two horizontal frames
#4

[ColinM]

My new toy arrived, now providing 0.6° angle of view, similar to a 4000mm lens on a full frame sensor.

I really like your creativity, plus the lunar results you've achieved

[Øivind Tøien]

Thanks for the enthusiastic comment, Colin.

[Akira]

Literally amazing images, Øivind  A telltale proof that a dedicated camera works just as described in the experienced hands.

There seem to be faint bluish fringe along the edge of the Moon.  Is that caused by the Reyleigh scattering?

[Øivind Tøien]

Thanks Akira, I have seen that fringe on images stacked from my AW1 too, and sometimes I worked hard to remove it. The transition seems a bit too sharp to be related to Rayleigh scattering. It might be an artifact due to the stacking and following wavelet sharpening: When imaging planets, edge effects named rinding is often seen, typically with planets that have a very small apparent size, so it could be related to that. Another thing I have noticed in many side-lighted  lunar captures is a green cast that appears on the highly lit edge of the craters. I have yet to see an explanation for that.

[Nasos Kosmas]

Excellent Oivind very nice capture!

[Øivind Tøien]

Thanks Nasos. It is really fun figuring these things out, and I got just too tempted to try see what a standard Nikon lens could do with one of these planetary cameras. I am really too late in the season for the planets now (Jupiter sets before it is dark and Mars while visible has traveled much further away than in early December). Perhaps Venus could be a realistic target if I can find a clear view. I tried to aim for Mars that was a close view to the Moon yesterday, but I was not able get it within the computer monitor. So I have some work to do on this before the next dark season.

[Akira]

Thanks Akira, I have seen that fringe on images stacked from my AW1 too, and sometimes I worked hard to remove it. The transition seems a bit too sharp to be related to Rayleigh scattering. It might be an artifact due to the stacking and following wavelet sharpening: When imaging planets, edge effects named rinding is often seen, typically with planets that have a very small apparent size, so it could be related to that. Another thing I have noticed in many side-lighted  lunar captures is a green cast that appears on the highly lit edge of the craters. I have yet to see an explanation for that.

Thank you for the explanation.  It apparently opened up a lot more things to explore and investigate.  I'll stay in tune!

[Øivind Tøien]

Another one from tonight, shot through light cloud cover, but still workable. Again, open in new tab and click for full resolution.

[Bern]

moon amidst the city lights

[John Geerts]

Great results Øivind
Nice contrast, Bern.

The moon half hour ago in evening light
Z9 600/5.6 AIS (and a bit cropped)

[Øivind Tøien]

Thanks John.
The deep Tycho Crater near the south pole and the prominent Copernicus crater stands out very nicely in your capture. Nice with the balanced blue background for a change. Got overcast and snowing here so I am missing this phase for now.

Very nice nightly atmosphere over the city, Bern.

[Øivind Tøien]

I could not resist doing another two-frame stitch, about the same day after John's capture. Seeing was actually pretty bad compared to my first attempt with the planetary camera, with the moon twisting and wobbling. But the stacking and wavelet sharpening was able to rescue it. Stacked 25% of 2000 video frames. For larger view open image in new tab and click it.
#1


Just to give some idea about the process, this is what the Tycho crater looks like at 100% crop before application of the wavelet sharpening in WaveSharp. It is quite diffuse, but notice how smooth the stacking has made it,  This is the reason that the strong wavelet transform can be applied without creating much noise. The details are there, pulled out of the best frames, just with low micro-contrast. This differs from deep space photography where the low noise levels due to the stacking is used to pull up the dark parts of the image.
#2

[John Geerts]

Thanks Øivind.

Interesting to see the effects of stacking on the sharpening